The Ministry’s official Year 9 resource, *Navigating the Journey: Relationships and Sexuality Education*, produced by Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa, is a glossy 196-page document. It is not a balanced, cautious guide to growing up. It is heavily weighted toward exploring “gender identity,” “sexual orientation,” “diversity,” and critical discussions around pornography and sexting. Students are encouraged to view gender as largely self-defined and to explore “diverse attitudes and values about sex.”
The underlying message is clear: everything is up to the individual. Whatever you want, so long as you get consent, take precautions, get regular check-ups, and here’s how you get an abortion if needed. It is even suggested that age should be no real barrier because the police will rarely prosecute. Marriage gets one mention — only to explain that rape can occur within it.
Even the most open-minded and liberal parents sense that something is not quite right here. They might not view sex as especially sacred, but deep down they understand that it has a purpose. It is written into human nature: sex is for bonding a man and a woman together in a stable relationship and for producing and raising children. That purpose gives sex its meaning, beauty, and seriousness.
Yet for the authors of "Navigating the Journey", that very purpose seems to be treated as the downside — something to be worked around with consent forms and medical procedures rather than embraced as the natural telos of human sexuality.
This is the inevitable result of abandoning any shared understanding of human purpose. As Alasdair MacIntyre explained in *After Virtue*, once societies reject the idea that human life has natural ends and directions, morality collapses into pure emotivism — “I feel this is right for me.” That thin, subjective framework is exactly what is being taught to our children at the most vulnerable and formative stage of their development.
We are telling 13-year-olds that their bodies have no inherent direction, that biological sex is optional, and that the highest standard for sexual behaviour is mutual consent and personal pleasure. Then we act surprised when youth mental health collapses, identity confusion soars, and stable relationships become harder to form.
Minister Stanford needs to be asked these hard questions: Why is her ministry promoting resources that treat biological reality and the natural purpose of sex as outdated? Why are we allowing ideology to replace truth at such a young age? And why are we steering children into confusion and calling it education?
Our young people deserve far better. They deserve honesty about their bodies, clarity about human nature, and guidance toward genuine flourishing — not ideological experiments dressed up as “relationships education.”
Even the most open-minded and liberal parents sense that something is not quite right here. They might not view sex as especially sacred, but deep down they understand that it has a purpose. It is written into human nature: sex is for bonding a man and a woman together in a stable relationship and for producing and raising children. That purpose gives sex its meaning, beauty, and seriousness.
Yet for the authors of "Navigating the Journey", that very purpose seems to be treated as the downside — something to be worked around with consent forms and medical procedures rather than embraced as the natural telos of human sexuality.
This is the inevitable result of abandoning any shared understanding of human purpose. As Alasdair MacIntyre explained in *After Virtue*, once societies reject the idea that human life has natural ends and directions, morality collapses into pure emotivism — “I feel this is right for me.” That thin, subjective framework is exactly what is being taught to our children at the most vulnerable and formative stage of their development.
We are telling 13-year-olds that their bodies have no inherent direction, that biological sex is optional, and that the highest standard for sexual behaviour is mutual consent and personal pleasure. Then we act surprised when youth mental health collapses, identity confusion soars, and stable relationships become harder to form.
Minister Stanford needs to be asked these hard questions: Why is her ministry promoting resources that treat biological reality and the natural purpose of sex as outdated? Why are we allowing ideology to replace truth at such a young age? And why are we steering children into confusion and calling it education?
Our young people deserve far better. They deserve honesty about their bodies, clarity about human nature, and guidance toward genuine flourishing — not ideological experiments dressed up as “relationships education.”
Rodney Hide is a former Minister and leader of the ACT Party. This article was sourced from HERE.
7 comments:
Just look at what passes for teachers these days.
Produced by Sexual Wellbeing “Aotearoa”. There’s that word again the liberal left has adopted guaranteeing this to be a progressive powder keg, pitting children against family values.
>"This is the inevitable result of abandoning any shared understanding of human purpose."
There never has been a "shared understanding of human purpose". 'Purpose' is an ideological abstraction and its meaning and the criteria to be applied to it are very subjective, varying not only between groups professing differing world views, but also between individuals. Some of us don't like teleological reasoning and deny the very validity of the word 'purpose' in this context.
Not that we need a "shared understanding of human purpose" to cry foul about adult ideological zealots pushing "alternative sexualities" onto our children. In some countries including Russia and Hungary they wouldn't be allowed to get away with it.
Most parents regard teaching children about sex (in the broad sense, not just the reproductive mechanisms) and sexual morality as their responsibility - when the time is right and the child is mentally ready for such topics. Parents, unite - never mind how you feel about "human purpose", just raise your voices in protest together, and the powers that be will get the message.
Schools and teachers are OK to teach youngsters 'how babies are made' but they should leave it at that. Mind you, even that can be quite tricky nowadays. Readers may be interested in looking at my 2018 paper "Challenges to biology education from new reproductive technologies," Journal of Biological Education, 52(2), 231-234.
In Hungary they will get away with it now the government has changed. $$$$ in ezxchange for compliance with EU diktat ''values''.
Rodney Hide is very much on the money here. While he doesn’t specifically say so, there is a dimension which sits behind what he says, which is evolution.
From a basic understanding of evolution, we can see that there is very much a purpose to life and hence to sex. As Mr Hide says, sex “has a purpose. It is written into human nature: sex is for bonding a man and a woman together in a stable relationship and for producing and raising children.”
The purpose of life is life. For humans and other animals that entails an instinct which is shared across the species for sexual reproduction and subsequently raising the offspring to an age where they can in turn reproduce. We have selected a cultural ritual of marriage to facilitate that. While that does not preclude variation, those who teach otherwise at school are training children to act unnaturally.
I agree with Rodney, this sex education is irresponsible and destructive. Wise aborigine elders have declared Western licentiousness , introduced by liberals has done tremendous damage to aborigines. Their tendency for males to abandon care of their own progeny is rife here among Maori as well. Progressivism 's aim was anti Christian. Self -control was considered the most beneficial attribute for a child in the Otago longitudinal study. These directives 'to do just what you feel like ' is not encouraging self control whether it is alcohol consumption. violence , financial restraint or sexual behaviour.
The problem Rodney, is that Erica is doing fantastic things on attacking opposition to getting us back on track in academic subjects.
This ,for me , is paramount and the opposition to this is formidable. Eg the AEC organisation has been established specifically to counter her on this.
To me the biggest problem with schools is that students develop zero work ethic. High school kids and younger rarely seem to be in school 9-3. They never have homework after 3pm. School holidays are holidays from what? Then some kids get to university and do hardly any work. Then employers hire these lazy kids...and start saying, give me some immigrants....
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